Motown 50

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Motown and the emergence in the '60s of a genre of music that still sounds great, soul music that re-defined pop music and pop culture and helped shape music today. And, almost certainly, tomorrow's music as well.

I've been lucky enough to see some of the legends of Motown perform live this year. Indeed, the year started with seeing Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (I've met them, y'know) on Jools Holland's 'Hootenany' telly show in the wee small hours of 1 January 2009 - I'd seen (and met) Martha and the girls a week earlier at the Bloomsbury Ballroom when they were over here recording the show. I will treasure seeing Lois drinking champagne and eating crisps while merrily chatting to fans.


I saw Martha and the girls later in the year at the Motown Legends Revue at Wembley. It wasn't the packed house I'd hoped for but there seemed to be very little publicity about it. Also on the bill were The Miracles and Junior Walker's All Stars. The lead was the impossibly glamorous Mary Wilson, one of the original Supremes who helped propell Motown to its global position. Mary was tres fab and sang a touching version of 'I Am Changing' from 'Dreamgirls' for Florence Ballard.


That night saw the news break that Michael Jackson had died, a great Motown star in his younger days.

October saw a return to Wembley, this time to see Gladys Knight with special guest appearance from her brother Bubba, my favourite Pip. The show was being filmed so I hope there'll be a DVD at some point.

The celebrations rounded off with seeing the Divas of Motown at both the Jazz Cafe and at Hammersmith Apollo just last week. Jack Ashford with his tamborine and vibes from the Funk Brothers, Mable John, the great Chris Clark and marvelous Brenda Holloway, those 'former ladies of the Supremes' who were totally over-shadowed by Mary Wilson over the summer (those songs were *hers*, y'know) and the discotastic Thelma Houston! There's also a 'Divas' double CD celebrating the music of the women of Motown. I'm hoping for a DVD since the Hammersmith show was being filmed.


What a Motown year this has been. Lots of re-released CDs, DVDs and live shows. A Temptations show would've been fun even though Otis Williams is the only original. I missed Smokey Robinson at the Roundhouse a couple of months ago (how on earth did that happen?) but saw the show on telly. Finally seeing and meeting Brenda Holloway and Chris Clark was a distinct high point. I'm not sure if anything else is planned for the remainder of the year, but I've enjoyed the ride so far.